Geek Charming
by Jmags-WriterofAwesomeness
Summary: A slightly more mature Victorious AU version of the Disney Channel movie "Geek Charming." When tech geek Robbie Shapiro makes popular diva Cat Valentine the subject of his documentary, the two clash. But as they work together, they form an unlikely bond. Will Cat forever hold a dislike against geeks? Or will a certain someone help her have a change of heart?
1. Chapter 1

_Hey everyone! So I know I'm already working on a Fanfiction now, but I just got this great idea for a story and I couldn't wait to write it! I found this movie on Netflix one day and I was like "Hey, that's Sarah Hyland! I have to watch this." So I watched it lol. It seemed a little cheesy at first, since they make high school look so innocent and stereotypical (it IS a Disney Channel movie, after all), but I continued to watch it anyway. I ended up loving it so much that I wanted to write a Victorious AU of it._

_As predictable as I am now, this will be a Cabbie story. Cat and Robbie are obviously Dylan and Josh, and you'll be able to find out which Victorious character matches up with each character in "Geek Charming." I know Trina is more suited for the personality of Dylan Schoenfield, but I'm not a big Tribbie shipper, honestly. Because this is an AU, some of the characters are going to be a little OOC, so hopefully you'll forgive me for that._

_I'm going to try and mimic the movie as much as humanly possible, but it WILL be substantially different. _It is rated T, so it won't be sugar-coated Disney crap, and it takes place in Victorious-land. I hope you_ enjoy it!_

* * *

"It's an honor to announce this year's Prome Queen, the most important crown that any girl can ever wear…"

A girl with bright red hair stood in the middle of five tall, gorgeous brunettes in black dresses and insanely high heels. She knew this was a tough competition, but deep down inside she hoped she would come out victorious. She stood with a seemingly confident smile on her face, her hand poised on her hip on top of her long, red dress. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, anxiously waiting for the announcer to call her name.

A drum roll played in the background as the announcer paused. "…Cat Valentine!"

Cat's eyes snapped open as her name echoed throughout the room and the crowd burst into applause and cheers. She gasped and clapped her hands together, giddy that she had actually won. To be crowned Prome Queen, in her mind, was the highest honor a high school girl could earn. It meant that she was the most popular girl in school, for crying out loud! By becoming Prome Queen, she would have every wannabe high schooler in the palm of her hand, wanting to be her- to be as awesome and as pretty as she was.

She smiled and waved at her ecstatic fans with a fluffy princess tiara resting on the top of her head and a big bouquet of white daisies in the crook of her arm. Rose petals showered the catwalk as she strutted down it, blowing kisses and posing for numerous pictures. _I can't believe it_, she thought to herself. _This is amazing. It's a dream come true!_

"Cat!" someone cried out. _Ah, another adoring fan. What else is new? _She laughed, enjoying the fame and popularity, and continued to celebrate her moment. "Caterina!"

_Wait a second…_

Cat stumbled out of her daydream and stared blankly at the lady sitting in front of her. "Yes Principal Dubois?"

Helen smiled at her brightly and handed her a clipboard. "The Prome Queen campaign application. I need your signature."

Cat gave her a slight nod and waited for one of her friends, Tori and Trina Vega, to dig out her own pen. She wrote her name in big, swooping letters, practically taking up the other half of the sign-up sheet. She handed the pen back to Tori, who had given it to her in the first place, then snapped her fingers in front of Trina's face, who was admiring herself in a little compact mirror. They turned simultaneously, as if they had practiced this routine a million times, and started walking down the school hallway.

The principal watched them walk away, than gestured to the next girl in line. "Next!"

"This year is going to be _muy fantastique_," Cat gushed to her friends as they walked with their arms linked together. "Guess why?"

"Why?" they chimed dutifully.

"Because once I am crowned Prome Queen, I will be the most popular girl at Hollywood Arts High School ever." The girls giggled at her comment.

Cat scanned the Asphalt Cafe, pointing out each clique as they passed their corresponding lunch table. "Drama club: easy vote. They like my dramatic flair." She flipped her hair flirtatiously as if that would prove her point.

She looked at a table to her right. "Ooh, the shirt I wore last semester! Followers. Easy votes, of course."

She grimaced as soon as she saw the lunch table on her other side. "Ew. Tech nerds."

Trina snickered. "You're already like a movie star to them, Cat."

"Totally!" Tori exclaimed.

Up ahead sat a group of kids with guitars and guitar picks scattered all across their table. "Indie rock wannabes. What's up with the guitars?" Cat complained, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "People, this isn't a campfire!"

Tori and Trina, finding her joke funny, giggled in agreement. "I can't believe you actually used to be friends with Gabriella Kalanowski," Tori said in a hushed voice, as if being friends with her was the worst thing in the world to do.

Cat failed to see her old friend look up from her guitar playing and attempt to wave at her. "Alas, it's true... until I traded her up for you two," she said smugly.

They shared a small BFF moment before they heard a girl call out Cat's name repeatedly. "I took your suggestion and got my hair cut into a bob!" she squealed, running up to her to show Cat her new hair, then dashing away just as fast.

"Definitely cute-ing it up!" Cat called after her. "See? People know I care," she said, addressing her friends. "Easy vote."

They stopped at the end of the Asphalt Cafe, trays still in their hands. "What about Jade West?" Tori asked her, concerned. "She's MAJOR competition."

Cat's eyes widened as she glanced over at a beautiful girl with jet black hair sitting with the football players- well, the ones not popular or good-looking enough to make The Ramp, at least. She smiled sweetly at Cat, then gave her a mean scowl that said _Bring it on, bitch._ If Cat wasn't the cattiest girl in school (clever word play, huh?), Jade was definitely a close second.

She was intimidated for a second. Even though Jade was ruthless and cruel in every way possible, she had the ability to earn major respect just by threatening people to vote for her. But Tori and Trina couldn't see her crumble under the pressure. They see her as their leader, she reasoned in her mind, and a leader should never show weakness. That would be _muy mal! _Spanish for "ew," of course.

She recovered and huffed. "What and _ever._ A good candidate likes the competish. If I ran for Prome Queen unopposed and won? Bo-ring! And who has the number one seat on The Ramp?" She pointed to herself triumphantly. "Mwa!"

The three girls looked up at a table high above them. The Ramp was where only the most popular people in the eleventh grade sat. Girls and guys alike dreamed about being able to sit there and gloat over the rest of the losers down below. New candidates were picked once a month, of course. Couldn't always eat with the same old boring crowd, right? However, as Abby Lee from Dance Moms always says, "Once you're at the top, it's harder to stay on top." And those words couldn't be truer for The Ramp. One wrong step and you're out of there as fast as Beck Oliver, the star player of the volleyball team and Cat's amazingly hot boyfriend, could spike a ball onto the opposing team.

Cat swooned as she saw Beck's arm draped over an empty chair. "Aw, look girls! Beck saved a seat for me! So sweet."

Beck's eyes met with hers and he winked at her coyly. She readied herself to venture up the stairs, spraying perfume around her head. As soon as she took a step forward though, she found a plate of pasta hurling at her chest. Before she could shield herself, it splashed all over her peach-colored blouse. A few noodles found their way onto Tori's cheek and in Trina's hair, and Cat swore she felt some fall down her shirt into her bra.

"Oh my god!" she screamed in horror as she found the culprit: an awkward, lanky guy with a black, curly afro and the stereotypical plastic glasses. "You… you GEEK! This is designer!" She struggled to wipe the disgusting pasta off of her chest.

Robbie Shapiro, one of the tech geeks, looked at her bemusedly. "No, it's tuna noodle casserole."

"You are so ga-ross!" she continued to screech at him.

"Uh, gross is just one syllable," he corrected her nervously.

"I can't believe that popular people like me are forced to share the same air as nerds like you!"

_Seriously? Forced to share the same air as me?_ _Okay, you wear so much perfume that you need a freaking gas mask just to survive. Let's replay that scene, shall we?_

**_But I'm in control of the story, you freak!_**

_Hush up, narrator. Just show them my side of the story._

_…__**Bossy.**_

* * *

So let's backtrack a minute or two then. While Cat was making her through the Asphalt Café, Robbie was over at the Grub Truck getting lunch. He put his tray down and cringed when he heard the squish of slimy pasta being dropped onto his plate. He took out his video camera, turned it on, and started recording. "Is this yesterday's fettuccine alfredo?" he questioned Festus, the person who had put the pasta on his plate.

He glared at him and reached for something out of Robbie's sight. Not done with Festus yet, Robbie snuck his camera inside the window to take a peek at what may be behind it. "Recycled?"

"No paparazzi!" Festus pushed the camera away and stormed off, cursing to himself as he did so.

Robbie sighed. He should've expected this. No one was willing to cooperate with him while he was filming for some reason. They claimed it was too "annoying" and "an invasion of privacy."

He grabbed his tray and began to make his way over to his usual table, where the tech geeks sat. As he walked below The Ramp, he smelled something that he wasn't used to smelling while he was at lunch. _Is that… vanilla?_

Suddenly, Cat sprayed him in the eyes with her strong perfume. Startled and in pain, he accidentally flipped his tray over, sending his pasta flying over the three most poular- and incredibly bitchy- girls in school. _Oh, crap._ He winced as he saw the majority of his lunch plastered on Cat's chest. "You…you GEEK! This is designer!"

_Uh, drama queen much? Grow up, it's just food. _He rolled his eyes. "No, it's just tuna noodle casserole."

"You are so ga-ross!"

He couldn't believe the spectacle that was standing in front of him. Could she really be that stuck-up and ditzy? "Uh, gross is just one syllable," he said.

She shrieked again and unknowingly flung even more pasta onto Tori and Trina, who looked equally as horrified as Cat did. Robbie stifled a laugh. "That's classic."

"Just look at this guy, everyone! He dumped his lunch on me on purpose!"

"But I didn't-"

"I can't believe that popular people like me are forced to share the same air as nerds like you!" she wailed.

_Ouch. That hurt. _He opened his mouth to protest, but then decided against it. Calling her names and insulting her would be social suicide. He was already unpopular enough; why make it worse? "I prefer the term tech geek, thank you very much."

"Oh!" Cat flailed her arms in the air and hurried up the stairs leading to The Ramp as her girls shot scowls at Robbie. He stared at them, appalled at their diva-like behavior, and then laughed. "I must practice that," he said under his breath.

He heard his friends arguing over their latest movie debate as he approached his table. "Casablanca. Curtiz is the director and it also stars Ingrid Bergman, Peter Lorre, and Claude Rains," Sinjin van Cleef said to a girl with short black hair.

"As Bogart's best film, I fully disagree. The African Queen with Katherine Hepburn, directed by John Houston- I mean it's miraculous; I mean it's beautiful…" Ponnie ranted on until Robbie plopped down next to her. "Oh hi Robbie!" she exclaimed, a love- struck smile appearing on her face. Burf didn't even notice that Robbie had sat down with them; he was too busy working on his science project.

"Oh look, the Tech Club president finally decided to show up," Sinjin said sarcastically.

"Sorry guys, I got stuck on the diva freeway." Robbie stuck his thumb out behind him, indicating where he was just minutes ago.

"Where's your lunch?" Burf asked, still working on making a new-and-improved video camera.

"Cat Valentine is wearing it."

Sinjin and Burf stared at him in disbelief, and Ponnie squinted her eyes seductively at him. "My food has gone where no mere mortal has gone before: The Ramp."

The tech club followed his gaze to where Cat was sitting and looked up towards the sky. She was wiping the remains of Robbie's tuna noodle casserole off of her face while Beck was cleaning pasta off of her skirt. _He probably wants a lot more than to touch her skirt,_ Robbie scoffed mentally. _Look at the lust evident on his face. Ick. _

Cat eventually noticed them staring at her and flipped them off, then went back to fixing her makeup.

Sinjin brought a camera up to his eye. "Yeah, you definitely need a passport to go in _there."_

"Passport? Hell, you need a robot army." Burf chewed on the tip of his screwdriver. "With killer dragon slaying skills."

Robbie faced them and saw Sinjin recording. "Okay guys, seriously," he said, taking Sinjin's camera away from him and putting it down on the table, "it's a whole other alien world up there! A mystery species! We'll never fully understand the populars, the way their strange vortex works-"

A flurry of sparks erupted from Burf's concoction, making everyone gasp and jump. "Geez Burf, what are you inventing now?" Robbie sighed.

"You don't need to know!" Burf snapped defensively.

"Damn, chill out, dude. Take a breather." He was about to say something else when a thing of beauty met his eyes and made his brain turn to mush. Ah, Gabriella. Her flowing brown hair and tan skin seemed to glisten as she walked past him. "Hey Gabby!" he called out to her quietly, hoping that she would hear him.

She looked back and shot him a small smile, making butterflies appear in his chest. "That's a cool guitar case," he stuttered, but she didn't seem to hear him. He watched her set down her guitar case on the table and didn't stop drooling over her until his friends raised their eyebrows in incredulity.

"Not gonna happen, my friend." Sinjin shook his head.

"Thanks for the support, pal!"

"How can I put this to you, Robbie…" Burf said, waving his screwdriver at him. "You've been crushing on Gabriella since fourth grade and now we're juniors." He jumped as Sinjin knocked the screwdriver out of his hand in irritation. "That's approximately 2,286 days, minus weekends and school breaks, that you could've asked her out and haven't."

Robbie took out a sheet of paper from his backpack, and Ponnie saw her chance. "I'd go out with you." She smiled a little too big for his liking, making him kind of uncomfortable.

"Guys, I don't have time for dating. The Full Moon Film Festival is only six weeks away!"

"And he's our school's best shot at total domination. You better win, dude," Sinjin said to him.

"No, I gotta win, okay? First prize is a trip to a Hollywood film camp in Los Angeles!" While he was explaining his situation, Ponnie made a square with her fingers, making his face the only thing she was focusing on. "I gotta make this groundbreaking documentary that truly changes the bar! You know, a film that establishes me as…cinematic genius."

He stopped and turned his head to see Ponnie mouthing "I love you" through her digital camera. Her lips pursed and she winked at him. His cheeks flushed in embarrassment and he averted his eyes down at the table. "So what's the documentary about?" Sinjin instigated.

"I have no idea."

Sinjin took a deep breath. "You have no idea…" he repeated. "That's fucking fantastic, Shapiro."

Burf picked his nails noiselessly while Ponnie played with the tips of her hair. "So…" Burf said, changing the subject. "Wanna go out with me?" he asked Ponnie hopefully.

She rolled her eyes and was just about to respond when another round of sparks, this time stronger and brighter, exploded from Burf's camera. Startled, everyone cried out and ducked under the table, and Ponnie hit the camera with a rag (who knows where she got it from?) until the mini fire went out.

They raised their heads slowly, safeguarding themselves for another explosion, and Ponnie answered Burf's question as if the answer was obvious; "No."

* * *

_So that was my best shot at recreating the first scene of the movie. Hope y'all enjoyed it! :D Pleaseeee review! XOXOXO_


	2. Chapter 2

_So I'm pretty much doing a chapter for each scene break in the movie- the first one was the cafeteria scene, now this one is the one where Josh/Robbie meets up with his teacher to talk about the film festival. If there are any really short scenes in the movie, I'll combine them and make them into one chapter. That sound okay to everyone? Good._

_Writer update: Still working on Chapter 10 of FTS. It'll probably be finished by next weekend at the latest depending on how much time I have to work on it. I'm alternating days on writing these chapters now. I worked on FTS yesterday, and now I'm working on this. Also still waiting to hear back from my co-author about ideas for "Where's Robbie?" and going to a P!nk concert tonight! And I just got a HUGE scholarship yesterday in the mail from one of the colleges I applied to! What else could be better?_

_Anyway, back to the story! :)_

* * *

A bald man with tufts of grey hair coming out the sides of his head was playing Ping-Pong in his office, bouncing the small, white ball against the wall as he played against himself. Bookcases filled with books on how to invent every piece of equipment possible lined one wall, stopping when they reached a big window with bright morning sunlight streaming through it. Across the other walls hung mementos of his international travels and pictures of his family and past stellar students.

Sikowitz was the Technology and Design teacher at Hollywood Arts. He was a wise but eccentric old man, occasionally drinking coconut milk and claiming to suffer from erratic delusions because of his addiction to the delicious drink. Nevertheless, he was a well-respected professor and Robbie's favorite teacher at Hollywood Arts. The best part about him was that he was so outrageous with his teaching techniques that Robbie never knew what to expect from him!

Hearing a knock on the door, the professor put down his paddle and wiped the sweat off of his brow. "Come in!"

Robbie cautiously peeked his head around the corner. "Mr. Sikowitz?"

"Robbie," Sikowitz greeted him and picked the ping-pong ball up, which had fallen onto the ground. "Please, call me Sikowitz. You know I hate anything with abbreviated honorifics in front of it."

_What? _Robbie thought, but he decided not to say anything about it. This is Sikowitz we are talking about, after all. Who knows what goes on in that brain of his?

"Okay… Sikowitz," Robbie corrected himself slowly.

He handed Sikowitz the application to the Full Moon film festival. Sikowitz smiled at him, took the paper from his hands, and held it up to his face so he could read the tiny print. "I like this…" he murmured. Robbie followed him to his desk, which was covered with scattered core assessment papers and literary journals. "Great…great…"

Sikowitz sat down in his chair and kicked his feet up onto the desk. He grinned contentedly at Robbie. "I can't wait to see what my star student has come up with!"

Robbie waited anxiously as he read his application more carefully this time, scrutinizing every little detail. "It's a documentary about the evolution of…" He raised his eyebrow in skepticism. "Robot voices in the science fiction genre?"

"Yeah!" Robbie exclaimed. "You know how two robots never sound exactly the same in every sci-fi movie?"

Sikowitz gave him a blank look, but he continued explaining his side anyway. "You have your 'I-am-a-ro-bot' voices…" He said in a mechanical voice and stiffly moved his arms in front of him like a stereotypical robot would. "Then you have these futuristic ones that make sounds like 'bee-boop-ba-dee-dee-doo-boop-bee-"

The professor shook his head and cut him off as Robbie started making squeaky noises that had the ability to get on someone's nerves really quickly. "Robbie… your artistic vision is robot voices?" He pursed his lips together into a straight line, obviously disappointed in Robbie's choice of documentary topic.

"Yeah…" Robbie sighed and sat down in the chair adjacent to that of Sikowitz's. "Look Sikowitz, I'm really struggling here. I've got all these great ideas, but none of them are good enough!"

"You really want to win that trip to Hollywood film camp, don't you?" Sikowitz nodded his head thoughtfully.

"More than anything."

Sikowitz maneuvered his body so that he was sitting upright at his desk and rested his elbows against the table. "Then challenge yourself, Robbie. Choose a documentary subject in which you stretch your limits, explore new territory, DISCOVER the truth!"

He slammed his first down on the table in his excitement, startling Robbie. "How about instead of using robots…use a human subject," Sikowitz suggested with a big, goofy grin on his face. "Or llamas. Llamas are fun to film too, especially when they spit in people's faces."

He cackled at the image of a llama spitting into an innocent passerby's face, and Robbie mulled over the professor's advice in his head. The one about the human subject of course, not the spitting llamas. "A human?" Robbie clarified.

Sikowitz nodded. "Okay, so challenging…truthful…but human," Robbie said slowly, thinking out loud to himself. "Got it."

He couldn't help but doubt his teacher's advice a little bit. It was good advice, but people were just so hard to work with these days, always wanting what wasn't their decision in the first place. More screen time, complementary food and beverages, money… etc., etc. Machines were so much easier to work with. They didn't fight back, they didn't try to insult you or pressure you into making things their way, and they most certainly were more predictable than humans were.

But then again… This might be his only chance to get into that film camp. If he didn't come up with something unique, mind-boggling, creative, something that no one else had ever thought of doing before… he was toast. Goodbye fun-filled summer, hello lazy father who lived six hours away and made him do all the household chores and didn't care a shit about his existence.

He had to win this. It could be risky, but it was his only choice. He had no idea what he wanted to film having to do with people yet, but he'd come up with something in time.

At least he hoped he would.

"Now I need a real proposal by tomorrow," Sikowitz told him, snapping him out of his thought process. "Otherwise I'll have to give our school spot to another student."

He stood up and handed Robbie back his application. Robbie looked down at his paper, rereading his turned-down old proposal wistfully, and breathed out forcefully. "Okay, I'll see what I can come up with."

Sikowitz patted his shoulder. "Good boy. Now you be best be getting off to class now, or else I may just have to throw coconuts at you and shoo you out myself."

A mixture of confusion and alarm flooded Robbie's expression. Seeing this, Sikowitz laughed and clapped him on the back. "I'm just kidding!"

He smiled sympathetically at Robbie and started playing ping-pong again, leaving the boy puzzled and in deep thought. He read the paper over and over, trying to look for clues that could be the key to winning the trip of a lifetime- well, in his mind at least. _How the heck am I going to pull this off?_

* * *

_Hehehe, a shorty. A quick and easy one to write :)_


	3. Chapter 3

_Oh boy… Looks like April's gonna be a pretty busy month for me, so updates may be less frequent to both this story and FTS. Like once-a-month frequent. But don't worry, I'll be writing a lot more in the summer hopefully! I'll also be starting a collab with a good friend of mine soon, so be on the lookout for that as well! And yes, there will be Cabbie in it, of course ;). Hope you enjoy this chapter!_

* * *

"No, I am not taking a dollar less than the listing price," Cat's father, Stewart Valentine, barked into the phone. He smiled as the sales person on the other side stammered an apology and offered him a discount. "Well that's great; I'll send the paperwork right over then… Great. Talk to you soon."

He hung up his phone and walked over to his daughter, who was primping herself while looking at her reflection in one of the glass walls of an empty shop in the mall. "What do you think, sweetie pie? Do we turn this place into a 'Sparkles Cupcakes' or an accessories bar?"

Cat smiled at her dad, the CEO of the fanciest mall in town. The previous shop owner had run out of business and now he had to sell the store location to another company. She was flattered that he would ask for her help on making such a big decision...not that he wouldn't need her help anyway. With her fashion flair, despite the mall's already exquisite boutiques and shiny white walking areas, the place needed to be spruced up a little bit. In her opinion, anyway. "Dad, anyone that buys their accessories in a mall is _un empollón._ I'd go with the cupcakes, gives it more of a glam-factor."

"And that is why you're my top advisor." He looked at his daughter with pride etched in the creases of his forehead. He knew she'd make a fabulous businesswoman someday- if she'd stop obsessing over her popularity and become more focused on her schoolwork.

He felt his phone buzz in his hand, signaling another work meeting that he would have to attend. He grimaced. "You know what? I'm going to have to head back to the office for a late meeting, pumpkin."

"Whatevs." She brushed it off like she didn't care, even though deep down inside she did. "Ooh! I need to borrow your marketing team."

"Marketing team? Why?"

"Because!" she whined. "Blossom Queen, duh! It's essential! I need signs, brochures, headshots-"

"Oh! Well, in that case…" he said, sarcasm evident in his tone. "The answer would be absolutely not."

"Why not? Jade West has the whole varsity football team and her anti-cheerleading team making posters for her campaign!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, and _you_ have ingenuity. If you wanna win this, you need to do it on your own. You're a smart girl. Got to pull yourself up by your bootstraps."

This time, his phone rang instead of vibrating. He looked at the caller ID and saw that it was the interior design company. He had to take this right away. He kissed Cat on the cheek quickly, then walked off in the other direction and answered his phone.

She squinted, perplexed by her dad's words. "Bootstraps?" What did that even mean? Hello, boots have zippers, not straps! She should know; she had tried on seventeen pairs of shoes on at Shoes Unlimited the other day and none of them had straps.

She rolled her eyes and continued to shape her bangs so that they rested gently on top of her forehead. Leave it to her dad to be old-fashioned and wise. As much as she loved him, his "words of wisdom" got on her nerves sometimes, especially when it contained words she didn't understand.

Meanwhile, on the upper half of the mall, Robbie was dealing with a customer who clearly didn't know how to use a Pearphone- or any other piece of technology, for that matter. He stared at the unruly young man in disbelief. "Bad reception?" Really? His phone was practically falling apart and his only concern was that he was getting bad reception?

Answering his thoughts, the top half of the phone fell off of its hinge. The customer's eyes grew wide. "I…well…um…"

"Dude. This is non-refundable. I can't have you exchange this phone for a brand new Pearphone. It's a piece of crap."

He then saw how dejected the young man looked and he felt bad for him. He probably didn't have enough money to buy a new phone. He wouldn't have been surprised if he had told him that he was fresh out of college, broke and in debt. "Tell you what…"

Robbie opened a drawer behind the counter and handed the customer a slip of paper. "Here's 20% off of your next phone." He knew it wasn't much, but his boss could fire him if he offered any more discounts.

The guy took it from him gratefully, thanked him, and left. Robbie shook his head, wondering how some people could be so skilled with video games and beer bottles yet barely knew how to work a phone.

He casually glanced out the window of the Pear store and his heart stopped. Gabriella, most likely on her lunch break from Yotally Togurt, was sitting at a table near a potted plant, giggling and texting someone on her phone. She twirled her hair and laughed as she took a "selfie," slang for a photo of one person, with her camera.

Robbie gawked at her appearance: her red, floppy apron that hung around her slender waistline, her red Converses, her pearly white smile. She was just so beautiful. Why couldn't he get the balls to go up and ask her out?

_No way,_ he thought to himself. _No dating for now, Shapiro. You gotta win the film festival first before chasing after a girl who is way out of your league._

He kept staring at her as one of his coworkers came in to replace him, quickly giving him a high-five to signal that his shift was done. He slung his grey fuzzy jacket over his shoulder and walked out the door, determined to finally talk to the girl of his dreams.

On the floor below, Cat had met up with Tori and Trina and was showing them her new purse that her daddy got her just because it was a Friday and she wanted a purse. All she had to do was say that she was broke and give him the puppy-dog face and the in-style fashion accessory was hers. For her, it was just that easy. "It's imported leather," she bragged, caressing the material with her fingertips.

"Imported from where?" Trina asked. She ogled the purse with a big, pearly-white grin on her face, as if she really wanted to know where it was made. She tried not to be envious of the purple flower that blossomed in the middle of the wallet, inwardly thinking that it would go great with the purple tank top she had bought the other day.

"I don't know, somewhere far away with lots of shipping costs, duh." Cat rolled her eyes. As much as she loved their friends, they knew nothing when it came to fashion. She taught them practically everything they know about fashion and yet sometimes they still refused to listen. And shouldn't everyone listen to her?

Of course. Because she was the most popular girl in school and everyone wanted to be like her. Point made.

"Yeah, probably Italy, duh!" Tori chimed in.

Suddenly, a buzzing sound appeared around their heads. "Is that a bee?" Cat's question was immediately answered as a bumblebee landed on her nose. "A bee! Eeeeeep!"

Her friends watched in horror as Cat flailed her arms around, trying to get rid of the bee. Her high-pitched squeals heightened as the bee refused to go away, and her numerous shopping bags slipped off of her arms.

Hearing her screams, Robbie turned away from his original destination and walked over to the edge of the escalator to watch the spectacle. Seeing the girl in a state of girly, diva-like panic made him snicker with amusement. He shamelessly enjoyed it whenever Cat Valentine didn't get something her way. It reassured him that the world was in balance and not just revolving around her 24/7 like it seemed to almost every day.

Suddenly, the bag that she treasured most- the one made of imported leather, that is- flew out of her hand and into the fountain. Cat gasped and ran over to the edge of the fountain, helplessly watching it float away. "Oh my god, my purse! Someone help, please! Help!" she wailed.

And that is when Robbie came up with his brilliant idea- the perfect subject for a short film. Caterina Valentine. Sikowitz had said that his subject had to be human. Cat Valentine was human…sort of. She' was definitely a challenge…a big challenge. She was perfect- for his short film, of course, not in real life.

It would be an in-depth vignette about the ultimate high-school goal: popularity, complete with a behind-the-scenes look at how the populars lived and thrived. Tips about how to climb to the top of the social ladder, exclusive shots of Cat and her boyfriend Beck, interviews of how Cat's friends felt about being her personal slaves… his vision started to fall into place in his imagination.

_The Popularity Project. _What a nice ring it had to it. Catchy, short and to the point. If only he could find a way to convince Cat to be the subject of his film, of course.

_Wait a second…_ The purse. Everyone was looking at the girl like she was nuts. Heck, he was doing the same thing! She was acting absolutely ridiculous.

But if he helped her out and saved her purse… there was no way she could turn his offer down.

Problem solved.

He soon found himself running down the escalator and towards the distressed girls while Cat continued to complain, unaware of his presence in the mall. "Someone turn this fountain off immediately!" she continued to panic. "What the hell, people! Don't just stand there! Help me!"

She turned to her friends. "Why aren't they listening to me?"

They shrugged their shoulders sympathetically. "Gimme your phone," Cat commanded the eldest Vega sister. As soon as the phone was in her grasp, she started dialing a number.

"Who are you calling?" Tori asked.

"911."

As he reached the fountain, Robbie whipped off his jacket and took his shoes off until he was just left in his work uniform and his socks. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the purse floating away from the girls. He slowly stepped into the fountain and cringed as he felt the water seep into his socks and soak the bottoms of his baggy pants.

Trina gasped and wildly tapped Cat's arm to get her attention. "Look!" She pointed to Robbie. "It's that geek from lunch today!"

Cat followed her gaze and her mouth dropped open at the sight of the awkward man wading after her purse. It was so weird but so incredibly courageous at the same time! "He's saving your purse!" Tori squealed.

"What?" She was surprised at first, but then her sudden burst of respect for him disappeared. Hello, _he _had spilled tuna noodle casserole all over her stunning outfit today! It was the least he could do to repay her for the social humiliation he had inflicted on her.

Robbie waded as fast as he could, but the purse was moving way too fast despite his large strides. "Come on, you damn piece of leather," he muttered to himself. "Come to Robbie."

His eyes widened as she saw where the purse was headed towards next. "No no no NO-"

But it was too late. The purse had already floated into the fountain's many squirting jets.

Robbie stared at the jets in disbelief. "Really?" They pumped water to the air in a spectacular array of patterns, although Robbie certainly didn't find them spectacular right now given the situation he was currently in. Their main purpose now was to squirt Robbie right in the face.

He took a deep breath and started following the purse again, trying to avoid the streams of water all around him. Unfortunately, he didn't get so lucky. By the time he reached the purse again, the jets had soaked him completely and even succeeded in attacking his face a few times, as he had previously predicted they would.

The girls squealed and jumped up and down as Robbie picked up the purse and held it up to shake the water out of it. However, their happiness disappeared just as fast. All the jets surrounded Robbie and shot huge blasts of water into the air, startling him and almost making him drop the purse.

Not being able to see him anymore due to the amount of water being shot into the air, they held each other's hands and hoped that he would make it out with Sir Sanchez safe and sound. To their relief, their hero burst through the wall of water with the purse in his hands.

He stood there defiantly, shaking his hair out with the purse squeezed to his side. Feeling accomplished, he confidently strode over to Tori, Trina, and Cat to return the purse…only to slip and fall when he had almost reached them.

Cat tensed up and groaned in frustration. Why did he have to be so clumsy? And did it really take him that long to get a purse? How lame.

Robbie emerged from the water and tossed the purse onto the side where he had put his shoes. His shirt billowed out like a balloon and he spit water out of his mouth, disgusted by the metallic taste of it. _Whoever had the idea of throwing coins into a fountain_ _should be dragged out into a street and shot_, he thought, wishing that he could wash the filthy taste out of his mouth.

Overjoyed, Cat retrieved her purse, pushing his beat-up sneakers into the water in the process. And to his utter amazement, she and her friends walked away without saying a thank-you. He stared after them, frozen in his place, as people gave him queer looks. "What?" he yelled to them bitterly, starting to feel a little self-conscious. "The show's over, everyone! Go back to whatever you were doing before."

And they did just that, including Jade, who had been campaigning for Blossom Queen all day at the mall. "Fuck school, fuck life. Vote for me or pay the price," she growled at him, slamming a sticker in the shape of a skull onto his pec.

"That doesn't exactly rhyme, you know! Not a very effective tag line," he shouted after her and winced as she gave him a death glare. He swore that as soon as he woke up tomorrow he would have a bruise where she had nailed him with the palm of her hand.

A little ways from the fountain, he saw Tori and Trina giving Cat advice on how to take care of her purse. His anger at their disrespect for him made his nostrils flare and he almost saw red. He stormed over to them, eventually close enough so he could hear what they were talking about. "Imported leather needs specialty cleaning," Tori told her.

"Totally. When my cellphone got wet-"

Trina's fascinating story was interrupted by Robbie appearing over Cat's shoulder and snatching her purse out of her grasp. "My Sir Sanchez!" Cat cried.

Robbie stared at her in disbelief. "You named your purse?"

She rolled her eyes at him and reached for her purse, only for Robbie to pull it farther away from her. "Not so fast. I have a proposal for you."

"Whatever it is, the answer is N-O, as in no way," Cat sneered, sneaking a peek at her friends as if to say to them "Who the hell does this loser think he is?"

"Can I at least propose the proposal first?" Robbie pleaded. No way was he going to go through all this crap for a stupid purse and not get anything out of it.

She sighed loudly. Robbie, sensing her exaggerated annoyance, ignored it. "I want you to star in my movie for the film festival."

Taken aback, her eyes lit up. A blush rose in her cheeks and she immediately became excited. "What? Me, star? In a movie? Uh..." Her heavily-glossed lips turned up into a huge smile. "What's it about?"

"You. Your life. You know, what it's like to be popular and to run for Blossom Queen?"

No way. This was too good to be true. Surely angels from heaven must have been watching over her at that moment in time. Jade West may have had stickers and posters and slutty-as-hell clothing, but what was that compared to a movie? Especially if it was about her?

Realizing that she had been holding her breath in from her excitement, Cat let it out noisily and nodded her head at Robbie in confirmation. "Deal. Once you lose this, that is."

She peeled the sticker off of Robbie's shirt and tossed it to the side. Robbie's face brightened, ecstatic that his last-minute plan had actually worked. "Deal!" he exclaimed and held out his hand for her to shake.

Cat looked at his hand and grimaced. All she could see were the too-short fingernails (obviously from picking or biting. Yuck.) and long fingers that resembled sausages. Not to mention that his hand was dripping wet as well. Ew. She took one of his fingers with the tips of her own and shook it lightly.

"The competition just got serious," she said, quickly taking her purse from Robbie and tucking it protectively under her arm. Confused, Robbie turned his head and saw that Jade had somehow snaked behind him and was now passing Cat.

Jade stopped in her tracks, her face hard as a rock. "It has always been serious for me," she hissed back at Cat.

Robbie glanced back and forth at the two of them, convinced that a cat fight was going to break out any second. Instead, Jade merely whipped her hair violently, barely caressing Cat's face, and strutted away in her fishnet tights and black leather boots. A football jock acknowledged them briefly, averting his gaze slightly towards Cat's chest. "Andre!" Jade screeched from afar, making the dude jump and scurry after her.

Robbie gave out a slight chuckle, not quite believing what had just happened, but Cat cleared her throat and gave him a reality check. "Tomorrow. Lunch. The dining hall. We can start shooting my movie then."

And with her signature exit, she snapped her fingers in his face and she and her girls went off to shop at another boutique. "Actually, it's my movie!" he shouted after them weakly.

He groaned and rubbed his temple. What the heck did he just get himself into? But there wasn't any chance of going back now. After suffering hours of the diva's demanding behavior and countless failed takes and edits, his film career would finally kick off. He was sure of it.

But that would have to wait. He had more pressing issues to take care of at the moment. "Where are my shoes?"

* * *

_Sooooo sorry I took forever to update! I just have so much going on right now that it's hard to find time to write. I started writing this a while ago and almost never had time to add to it. I swear I wrote more than half of it just today. Hope you're enjoying it so far!_

_Fun fact- I was annoyed because I couldn't find a place to put Andre in the story, and now I just did! Even if he is a pervy, womanizing jock. Sorry Andre fans! The characters have to be a little OOC anyway because this is an AU and not Victorious-land._


	4. Chapter 4

_Along with my dwindling enthusiasm for school, my motivation to write has slowly been dwindling as well… But since I don't have as much schoolwork to do now as I used to, it's starting to come back! Here you will get a sneak peek into the home lives of Cat and Robbie. Bon appetite!_

* * *

Cat sped up the driveway leaving to her house, desperate to get her purse clean ASAP. She parked the electric blue convertible in front of her patio, which appeared to look just like the entrance of the front lobby. One of her father's chauffeurs would take care of it later.

Compared to other houses, her house was as big as two medium-sized houses combined. It had three majestic floors and towered above all the other houses as if to remind everyone how rich the Valentine family really was. The clean stucco walls glittered in the sunlight and the house's block-like orientation gave the area a certain modern feel, a sense of comfort and fashion within the 21st century.

She put the car in park and unstrapped her purse, which was placed delicately in the passenger seat. She grimaced as she picked up the dripping piece of leather by its handles. "You need some major CPR, Sir."

The inside of her house was even more impressive than its fashionable modern aura it emitted on the outside. Many of the walls were made of glass and were adorned with wood furnishings, giving the elegant home a simple yet comforting touch. Above the huge entrance hung a wooden sculpture or two that her dad had bought while he was in Moscow on a business trip. Her heels clicked daintily on the polished tile floor as she gently shut the door behind her.

"Marta?" she called, searching for her stepmom. "Marta! I need help carrying!" She was usually home after Cat got home from school. Habitually Marta would be making dinner on the stove when she entered the house, and the smell of a fresh, home-cooked meal always made her mouth water. She had to admit that even though she didn't really like her stepmom all that much, she was a damn good cook.

Cat thought of Marta more as one of the servants than her stepmom, personally. She barely spoke to her unless her father forced her to and she would make a beeline for her room whenever she saw Marta walking towards her. She couldn't imagine the thought of her father loving another woman other than her mom, which is why she tried as hard as she could to have limited contact with her stepmom.

Besides, she didn't want to lose another mother. And what if the marriage didn't last? All that wasted affection she could spend on shoes and Beck would be a shame. It wasn't worth her while.

After hearing no answer and not sensing the scent of her stepmom's delicious cooking, she made her way down the long hallway leading to the kitchen. She placed her bags down gently, dropped her car keys casually on the table, and read the small note left on the wooden dinner table aloud to herself. "Dear Cat, went to the dentist, dinner is in the fridge. Love, Marta."

Cat sighed in exasperation. Of course the one time she actually needed Marta's help, she wasn't here. Looks like she would have to take care of her purse crisis by herself. She trotted a little ways to the laundry room, where she placed her purse in the dryer. "You'll be as good as new, Sir," she cooed affectionately, giving its leather flap a little kiss before shutting the dryer door.

The atmosphere was eerily quiet and still as Cat sat alone at the wooden table eating sweet-and-sour chicken with broccoli and rice on the side. It was her favorite meal and she would've enjoyed more if she wasn't in the house all by herself. Ever since her dad had started working more hours after he had acquired the position of CEO of his company, she found herself eating more and more dinners alone at the same wooden table. Which was fine with her, of course. Only it wasn't.

Her internal yearning for company made her lose her appetite and she ended up throwing half her plate in the garbage. Since she had made no plans tonight and she had a major psychology project due the next day, Cat changed into a comfy pink sweater and purple corduroys. After dumping her backpack onto her bed, she spread her books and papers out neatly around her and got to work.

She spent two hours working diligently on her homework, stopping every couple of minutes to readjust her tortoiseshell glasses (which few have ever seen her wear) so that they rested gently on the bridge of her nose. She only stopped when she heard her laptop make the sound of wind chimes, signaling that someone had tagged her in a picture.

"Gabriella has tagged you in a picture," the description read on the screen. Cat crinkled her eyebrows and clicked on the picture to get a better look, wondering what the heck this could possibly be. She hadn't talked to Gabby since the big blowout the two "besties" had before they graduated middle school.

She inhaled sharply as the picture materializing on her screen showed her and Gabby sharing first place at the second grade science fair. There they stood both holding the tiny little trophy proudly, Cat with her natural chestnut straight hair and Gabby with her brown curls. "Hi Cat," the caption said, and Cat wondered what prank Gabby was trying to pull on her. Did she even remember how much this photo meant to Cat? They looked so happy there and Cat found herself thrown in a state of nostalgia.

_Why would she do that?_ Cat thought. She slammed her laptop lid down and shuddered, trying to keep the memories from overloading her mind, but it was too late; she was already on the brink of tears.

She thought about her mother, who was the one who had taken that picture six months before she died of breast cancer. Her sweet smile, her perfect skin free of wrinkles and acne, the way she would read Cat her favorite bedtime stories—those were some of the many things she loved about her mom. Even eight years later she missed her mom so much it hurt. Things just weren't the same without her around.

Overwhelmed by her emotions, she walked into her purple-and-pink walk-in closet and fell to her knees. Fumbling through the various jackets and sweaters strewn on the ground and hanging above her head, she finally found her most treasured possession in a rectangular rose-colored box- and no, it wasn't her imported leather purse: her mother's Prome dress from 1975. She was crowned Prome Queen on Friday, April 26th, 1975. Besides her mother's birthday and her own, it was the only other date Cat had ever bothered to remember.

It was the day her mother became her role model. The day she died, Cat promised herself that she would do everything in her power to become Prome Queen her junior year to make her mother proud, to let her legacy live on. Of course it wasn't technically a legacy, per say, but Cat liked to think of it that way in her mind.

Cat fingered the rose-colored lace of the bodice, removing the golden locket carefully from the neckline and placing it to the side, before taking the prom dress completely out of its box and hugging it tightly to her chest. She inhaled the sweet scent of lavender that had always been present in her mother's laundry. Tears sprang to her eyes and she let them fall down her face as she imagined her mom holding her in her arms at that moment in her spiritual form. That was the whole reason she looked through her mother's old stuff so often- it made Cat feel like her mom was there with her even though she was gone.

For an hour she forgot about her homework and sobbed into her mother's dress, desperately wishing that she was still alive. Why did the world have to take her mother away from her so soon? Why did she have to be subject to this neglect, this feeling of loneliness that she compensated for by striving to be the most popular eleventh grader and the bitchiest girl in school?

This, my friends, is the real Caterina Valentine- the Caterina she hides from the rest of the world.

* * *

On the other side of town, Robbie's beat-up "junker car," as his friends liked to call it, chugged along the driveway as he pulled up to his own house. Unlike Cat's, his house was not very big. It was a quaint, medium-sized house in the middle of a secluded neighborhood surrounded by a forest of pine trees. Stone vines were carved into the pillars that made up the front porch to enforce the forest atmosphere while real poison ivy line the side walls of the house, as if to camouflage the house from the rest of the world. Potted plants and gardens were placed all along the front yard, making Robbie feel at one with nature.

Actually, scratch that: Robbie hated nature. All the bugs and allergies and things that could potentially harm you scared the crap out of him. Not that he disliked his house or anything- he just wish it was in a different location, that's all. Away from all the dirt and grass clippings and other things that made him sneeze.

After he parked the car next to his Mom's minivan, he walked over to the passenger's side and retrieved his bag, which he slung haphazardly over his shoulder. As soon as he shut the door, however, it creaked back open once he turned around.

He sighed and went to close the door again; the same thing happened. It wasn't until he kicked the door that he was able to put up the hood and lock his car.

Pushing his sopping wet hair out of his eyes, he jogged up to the front door, desperately wanting a change of clothes. The instant he opened the door he was ambushed by his large Great Dane, Mouse. What an ironic name for such a big dog. "Hey Mouse!" he exclaimed, feigning excitement. "Who's a good boy? Who did you bark at today, buddy?"

The dog jumped on him, resting his paws on Robbie's shoulders, and smothered his face with wet, sloppy kisses. "Robbie, is that you?" his mom called from the kitchen.

Upon hearing her voice, Mouse bolted for the kitchen, giving Robbie the chance to sink down to the floor and take off his shoes. "No mom, it's just a burglar who happens to have keys to the front door," Robbie sighed. He yanked off his shoes and watched with disgust as the dirty fountain water seeped out of his shoes and onto the floor. Great. They were going to smell like mold for days now and those were the only pair of sneakers he owned.

What a fantastic day this has been. First he broke the status quo by unwillingly interacting with a popular in school, his movie idea got completely shut down by Sikowitz, and now because of yet _another _interaction with Cat Valentine, he wouldn't be surprised if he came down with hypothermia the next day. At least he finally had a subject for his movie- even if it meant surviving hours and hours of social torture. Unfortunately for him that was the only bright patch of sun in his day of cloudiness.

He ran up the stairs to change with Mouse hot on his heels. He discarded his wet, soggy clothes in exchange for a long sleeved grey shirt with thin white stripes streaking across it and baggy jeans. There. That felt better. Robbie clambered downstairs, threw his dripping clothes in the dryer, and turned the corner to see his mom making one of her concoctions in the kitchen; she seemed to have something new to make every day.

She greeted him in a foreign language that he didn't understand; the only word he understood was his own name, of course. _What language is that?_ he thought to himself. He soon guessed it was Japanese when he saw that his mom was attempting to make some kind of sushi.

"Same to you too, I think," he chuckled, letting her give him a kiss on the cheek. "Hey, guess what? I think I've found my new documentary subject: Caterina Valentine."

"Oh, that's wonderful honey!" his mom exclaimed. "Who is the actress? I think I've heard her name somewhere before- maybe on the news or something."

"No, she's a girl that goes to our school," Robbie clarified for her. "In fact, she's pretty much the queen bee of Hollywood Arts. I'm just going to follow her around and shoot her Prome Queen campaign." As he was talking, his mom went to turn the stove top on. "I'm thinking about a hard-hitting exposé on popularity."

"Oh, well that sounds like an ambitious project, sweetie."

"I know. Speaking of projects, what is that?"

He gestured to the mixture of fish and rice that she was trying to roll up in rice paper. "Oh this? It's from sushi class. I'm making a spicy dragon roll."

When she was finished rolling up the paper, the filling spilled out the moment she let go. She looked at Robbie sheepishly, cutting a stray piece of paper off the bottom to add a finishing touch. "Ta-da!"

"Yaaaay," he said softly, secretly hoping that his mother wouldn't make him eat that. It looked edible and everything, but little did his mom know that she cannot cook to save her life. Every night she would try out a new recipe she learned in her cooking class, fail miserably at replicating it, and they would eventually end up ordering takeout in the end. Robbie always thought of her obsession with cooking as her mid-life crisis, a way to spice up the life she never had when his dad was around.

Suddenly, the pot of water on the stove top started bubbling over the lid, spilling into the fire below and making the flames lash out to the sides. "Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed, rushing over to turn the stove top off and to smother the flames with a dish rag.

"Hey mom…" Robbie observed the spectacle occurring behind the counter. "Do you wanna just phone in for pizza instead?"

"Oh yes," she said gratefully, walking over to take the phone from Robbie's hands. "So much better than sushi."

Out of the corner of Robbie's eye, Mouse snuck up behind him and sniffed at his mother's dragon roll. Finding it to his liking, he took it in his mouth and ran off with it to the dining room.

His mom looked up, surprised. "Go get him!" she hissed at Robbie and shooed him away before turning her attention back to the phone. "Hey Paul, it's Sandy. I'd like the usual, please."


	5. Chapter 5

_I'm back and better than ever! Working on three stories at once right now, but I'll try to update as often as I can because now that I'm out of school, I have a lot of free time on my hands :) The upcoming chapters may be pretty long because the scenes are so hard to separate from each other at this point. We'll see where I'll go with this lol. Just bear with me as I get back into the swing of things._

* * *

The next day, the first thing Robbie did when he got to school that morning was rush to Sikowitz's office and hand in his film festival application. He was so excited about the brilliant idea he had come up with that he had stayed up until midnight so he could get it in the next day. He was a little later than he wanted to be, but fortunately he was able to catch Sikowitz in time before he went to teach his first class.

"Hmm…" Robbie waited anxiously as Sikowitz read his application, his heart racing when he was finished. The wise old man looked at him steadily and then grinned. "Oh, I like this. A lot."

Robbie's face lit up. Finally, he had hit the jackpot! "An exposé on popularity…" Sikowitz murmured to himself.

"Yeah, you told me to challenge myself…" He exhaled and shook his head, his curls bouncing up and down erratically. "Caterina Valentine is proving to be a real challenge, alright."

"Don't forget what else I said. Seek out the truth, right?" Sikowitz raised his eyebrows at Robbie.

Remembering his exact words at their last meeting, Robbie closed his eyes and nodded. "The best documentarians dismiss the preconceived notions in order to uncover what's hiding underneath."

Not understanding exactly what Sikowitz meant, Robbie pretended he knew what he was talking about. "Uh, totally Sikowitz, yeah. I agree completely."

Sikowitz put down his application and took out a pen. "Caterina Valentine, huh?"

"Yep," Robbie replied, not sure where he was planning on going with this.

"Popularity may turn out to be more complicated than you think." He initialed the application and slid it across to Robbie. "Welcome to the competition, Robbie." He held up an old-fashioned camera in his hand, and Robbie found himself wondering why the heck he had it out in the first place. "Next stop: Hollywood!"

Sikowitz stood up and put on a serious face. "Now if you excuse me, I have to go take pictures of my coconuts before my class starts."

* * *

The first half of the day went by painfully as Robbie counted down the hours until he could meet up with Cat so he could start discussing the movie with her. What a weird twist of events; he went from avoiding the populars at all costs to practically waiting hand-and-foot on the queen bee herself.

_Never again will this happen once I'm done with my movie_, he reassured his uneasy mind. _Everything will go back to normal after this because this is just too odd to even be able to comprehend._

Finally, lunch rolled around and as soon as he saw Cat getting a salad in the lunch line, he jumped at the chance to get her attention. He snatched an apple from a bowl and took a big bite out of it as he approached her. "Hey, you ready to start?" he asked, his speech a little muffled.

"Almost. Hold this."

She shoved the tray into his hands and Robbie almost dropped his apple as he readjusted himself. He put the camera he had out back in his backup and placed his apple on the tray so he could save it for later. "First, some ground rules." Cat picked up a cherry tomato with a pair of tongs and eyed it warily. "One: we need to set up a strict filming schedule. No hanging around me before or after."

"Sure. Like I want to," Robbie scoffed.

"Two: I need a beauty budget, so $50 a week should suffice," she continued as she examined a pea pod the same way she did with the tomato.

Robbie's eyes almost popped out of his head. "Beauty budget?" He swallowed what was left of the bite of his apple. "I got only get five bucks a day for lunch."

"Three!" Cat said sharply, ignoring him. "No filming from my left side _ever_, it's my bad side. See?"

She turned her head to the side and posed, illustrating to him what she meant. Robbie squinted incredulously at her face. "They're both exactly the sam-" He stopped mid-sentence. "Are you always this high-maintenance?" he complained. He was starting to have second thoughts about this movie. All of a sudden, filming robots became slightly more interesting—and less stressful, for that movie.

But then Sikowitz's words echoed in his head and he pushed the negative thoughts out of his mind for the time being. "It is not high-maintenance if you want to look nice," Cat pointed out, completing her salad with a cucumber slice. "Wa-la! Now I'm done."

She smiled triumphantly at him, enjoying the power she was wielding over his head, and strutted away. Robbie, accidentally getting caught up in his own thoughts, saw that she had neglected to wait for him to follow her and ran to catch up.

"Hey!" he called to her, suddenly realizing her tray was still in his hands. "Don't you want this?"

"Oh, you can just sit it down at my seat," she said nonchalantly and motioned over to her table at The Ramp.

Robbie gulped. "The…The Ramp?"

"Uh, yeah duh, where else would we eat lunch?" Cat looked at him like he was the most clueless being on the planet and sauntered up the spiral staircase in her green high heels.

He turned around to glance at his friends, astonishment and fear dancing in his eyes. They were frozen in place at their table, absolutely stunned for the same reason- no geek had ever dared set foot onto The Ramp before unless he wanted to get beaten up or have his/her head shoved into a toilet.

Sinjin whipped his video camera out of his backpack and aimed it at Robbie's back, wanting to keep record of this moment—the one time where the status quo was completely shattered. But for our outcast, the status quo would not be broken down so easily. As soon as he approached the top of the steps, the cheerleaders gasped, the lettuce dripping with salad dressing sliding off of their forks. Their perfectly-glossed lips opened in disgust and two twin jocks dressed in identical clothing rushed to the entrance, blocking them from Robbie's view.

Intimidated by their size, Robbie stared up at the bodyguards, nervous sweat beading on his forehead. "Uh…Cat?" he squeaked, cursing himself mentally for letting his voice crack in front of everyone.

Cat made an annoyed noise and pushed between the two goons. "Evan, Danny, he's our friend now. Go sit down and drool over the pretty cheerleaders. The ones _not_ friends with Jade."

She grabbed Robbie's shirt and dragged him past the jocks. "Shooting a movie. Excuse me," Robbie said embarrassedly to the members of The Ramp as Cat pulled him over to the table where she, Tori, and Trina were sitting.

Robbie's friends watched all of this with complete amazement. "One small step for geek…" Sinjin murmured.

"One giant leap for geek-kind!"

Irked, Sinjin glared at Burf. "Not now."

* * *

After Cat had finished her salad, Robbie took out his video camera and got to work. "Why so determined to be Prome Queen?" he asked her.

Realizing he was accidentally taking an extreme close-up of her face, he zoomed out so that it could clearly be seen that she was sitting at the lunch table with her friends—or her personal slaves, as he liked to call them.

Cat gave the camera a big smile, tossing her red hair flirtatiously over her shoulder. "Because it's the best way to ensure life-long popularity."

"But aren't you already popular?"

"Let me ask you this: does Wahoo! Fruit Punch advertise?"

Robbie grinned. "Yeah, they have those cool commercials with the waterskiing penguins."

"Ooh, I love those penguins!"

Upon hearing the peppy voice interrupting her movie, Cat glowered at Trina and she immediately looked down at her food in disgrace. Satisfied with her response, she turned her attention back to Robbie and the camera. "Wahoo! Fruit Punch is already number one but they advertise in order to s_tay _number one. Get it?"

"Got it."

"Good. Everyone thinks it's soo easy being the popular girl."

"It's so not easy," Tori chimed in.

"Girls, this is mwa's movie!" Cat snapped.

"Actually if they want to add something, that's fi-"

"But being popular is SO not easy. It's like royalty or being the first lady. You have to live up to impossible standards of beauty _and_ you have to be a good influence. For example, I help out the less fortunate."

Robbie smirked. "Oh, so you have a charity?"

"_Absolumente—_fashion victims! _Mira aquí._" Cat got up and walked over to where Tori was sitting, placing her hands gently on Tori's shoulders. "Tori, the yellow scarf you're wearing is washing you out."

Cat smiled for the camera while Tori tried not to show that what Cat had said clearly bothered her. "Here." In a second, Tori's yellow scarf was replaced with Cat's white scarf splashed with multicolored polka dots. "Wear mine instead."

Triumphantly, Cat sat back down at her seat. "See? I had to sacrifice one of my babies, but it was totally worth it."

The picture on Robbie's video camera became slightly more crowded as Beck, wearing a tightly-cut black t-shirt and expensive jeans, set his tray down next to Cat's and sat down. "Oh!" Cat exclaimed dramatically, obviously doing it for the camera, and pecked Beck on the cheek. She looked over at Robbie to see if he had gotten it, but he was too busy staring at his lap. He had zoned out due to the lack of sleep he had gotten yesterday night. "Robbie!" Cat whined.

He looked up, startled. "Pay attention!"

"Oh, sorry," he apologized, not really meaning it, and watched as Cat repeated her previous action, this time with the camera recording.

"If you're a ten, you can only date a ten like Beck," Cat continued.

Beck looked over at her and grinned. "You still coming today to watch my volleyball practice? You can watch me score the winning spike and then we can celebrate in our own special way." He winked at her.

Robbie rolled his eyes, annoyed at Beck's cocky attitude. "Cat, he's blocking your light."

Beck's jaw tightened. "Why is there a talking nerd here?" he asked Cat.

"Beck, we've talked about this," Cat said, her voice raising an octave and her stage smile twitching. "We're making a movie about me running for Prome Queen. Play nice?"

Beck glanced over at Robbie and back, his anger unwavering. "Does it mess with my volleyball sched?"

"Of course not, baby, we'll work around it."

He went back to eating while Cat, hiding her disappointment, put on her stage façade and grinned brightly.

Robbie watched everything with a disgusted fascination. It was like he was watching a teen reality show unfolding on his screen. Cat was being an actress whereas everyone else was acting as they normally would to her diva-like behavior. It was good. Really good, actually; it uncovered her facade perfectly and the true feelings her friends had towards her. He could definitely use this footage to his advantage.

Now that he had witnessed the facade, however…he had to go about uncovering it.

But how?

_Uncover the truth, Robbie. Uncover the truth._

He knew what he had to do: more filming. Lots and lots of filming. Get her to warm up to him if she sees him catering to her every wish and command. As long as they weren't too out-there and extreme, that is. And once she learned to trust him…the truth would come out and Robbie's dreams of going to film camp would be one step closer to being fulfilled.

He smiled and turned his video camera off, feeling a sense of accomplishment for once in his life. "And we're done. Thank you for your time."


	6. Chapter 6

_Man, I thought this story would become more popular like my other stories are… Eh, whatever. Everyone's gotta have a dud sometime :P. But I'm not giving up!_

* * *

"So this is what you do after school?"

Cat looked at Robbie through a rack of clothes as she pushed the metal hangars back and forth. "Shopping improves the economy."

Cringing at her logic, Robbie made a face. "How…thoughtful."

"I know, right? I care."

"Right…"

He followed her with his camera as she scanned the entire sales rack, ogling the stuff that she absolutely loved and grimacing at the stuff that, in her words, was "so yesterday." "So in a scientific sense, how does popularity work? Are the Prome Queen candidates-"

"There are lots of levels of popularity," Cat interrupted him; fingering the lace skirt of a short, pink dress, imagining how great it would look on her at the next big party. "Anywhere from Student Council president-popular to head cheerleader or football-popular. Sure Jade is cheerleader/extreme slut-popular, but is she Prome Queen-popular?" She pushed through another rack of clothes to glance at the camera again and roll her eyes dramatically. "Doubtful," she sang.

"So how does one move up this social scale of popularity?" Robbie continued to ask.

Cat smiled as she picked out a magenta dress with orange butterflies on it. Short, casual, and she could easily match it with one of her many pairs of pumps. She just hoped it would fit her so she could buy it with her daddy's credit card that he allowed her to use "for emergencies." The dress was on sale and in a few days she would probably never see it again—wasn't that emergency enough?

She strode over to the mirror and held the dress up to her torso, processing Robbie's question. "Well, one way's hoping that it will rub off on you. Popularity is contagious."

_What the hell?_ Robbie wondered in his head but pushed it back before it could get out of his mouth. He needed to keep his opinions to himself and be open-minded if he wanted to get an accurate depiction of popularity. "What, like a cold?"

"Duh!" She then lowered her voice. "See, that's why Tori and Trina, despite the fact that they're sisters, fight to be the better friend; their popularity comes from mine."

Robbie fought to keep the smirk off of his face as he saw the sisters, overhearing what Cat had just said about them as they were looking at clothes on a different rack, look up and gasp, their mouths dropping open in outrage. Mirrored his thoughts exactly. And better yet, his camera had caught the whole thing.

"6.5% sales tax on $30.95…" Cat did the math in her head and had the answer in seconds before Robbie could even ask what she was doing. "$31.15!"

He stood there in awe, continuing to film her as she walked over to the shoe section of the store. Hell, he couldn't even do that kind of problem in his head as quickly as she did! He thought that all popular girls were dumb, but what Cat had just done…that was just freaking weird.

"Hate it. Have it. Have it. Have it. Hate it." Cat strolled down the aisle as if she had done this a million times, giving her opinion on each pair of shoes on display. "Oh whatever, I'll try some on just for fun."

She grinned and picked up a light-pink, high-heeled sandal, twirling it in her hands. "Geez, how many shoes do you need?" Robbie complained.

"One for each day of the year, of course. Why? How many do you own?"

Robbie gazed down at his own beat-up, grey sneakers. "Uh…you're looking at them."

Cat followed his gaze and gagged. "Clearly. _Totalmente asqueroso._"

Hearing her words, he wondered exactly what she had said. He had chosen to take French instead of Spanish all throughout high school and now, since most of his classmates were taking Spanish and were gloating about how much easier it is than French, he was slowly starting to regret his choice.

Cat strutted to the dressing room and Robbie trailed behind her. "So how long is this going to take?"

He was so absorbed in his filming that Cat had to stop him from coming into the dressing room with her. "No filming in here!" she gasped, shutting the curtain in front of his face.

Robbie sighed in exasperation; he was barely two minutes into his filming and already Cat was starting to wear him out. He cleaned his glasses briefly before sliding them back onto his face, resting them on the bridge of his nose. In his boredom, he scanned the rest of the store until he spotted Tori and Trina admiring the same outfit. "Hey."

The sisters looked up at the same time. "Now's your chance to tell me something about Cat."

"Oh," Trina giggled, stroking her hair flirtatiously. "Like what?"

"Does your popularity really come from hers?"

He realized he had come across a sensitive subject for the girls. They pursed their lips together tightly and Tori crossed her arms in front of her chest. "We may not be as popular as Cat, but we do know some stuff."

"Like, when Cat doesn't get her way, she goes full-on DQM," Trina whispered, as if she was giving up the biggest secret in the world to the camera.

"Drama queen mode," Tori translated for Robbie.

"And Beck only dates Cat because she worships him."

"And Beck LOVES being worshipped."

Robbie, pleasantly surprised by how eager they were to talk, was able to get their answers before Cat interrupted them by opening the curtain with a loud _swish_. "Ta-da!"

The girls jumped, scooting away from the camera, thankful that Robbie had turned around to film her so she wouldn't see what they were up to. "What do you think?"

Cat twirled around in a ruffled yellow shirt and pink skinny jeans. Tori and Trina glanced at each other and tittered simultaneously. "_Totes adorable,_" Tori complimented her.

"_Sí, sí!"_

"Guys, Spanish is _my _trademark, duh!" Cat whined, irked.

If only Robbie had looked back behind him to see their faces fall, replaced by scowls of frustration.

* * *

"So populars only hang with populars," Robbie clarified, now filming at a little old-fashioned diner just around the block.

Cat shrugged, twirling the straw around in her strawberry milkshake. "Cats don't hang with dogs, right?"

Robbie raised his eyebrow. "Really?" he said in disbelief. "_That's_ your argument?"

"Trust me, it's better this way. If everyone stays with their own group, there's less room for misunderstandings."

Robbie lowered his camera, zooming out on the screen. "What kind of misunderstandings?"

"Take you and me, for instance. If we mingled outside of shooting my movie together, you may get the wrong idea and ask me out."

Cat took a dainty sip of her milkshake and Robbie rolled his eyes. _ Ask you out? Seriously? In what world? Never going to happen._

"Imagine the horror," Tori added in, her chocolate milkshake sitting in front of her virtually untouched.

Trina gasped, almost dropping the straw in her vanilla milkshake. "It would be _scandalous_."

The sisters said their lines so dramatically that Robbie couldn't tell whether they were being serious or sarcastic. Given the circumstances and their personalities, they were probably serious. And he couldn't help but notice that their milkshakes made up a Neapolitan, making him extremely hungry. He would have ordered a milkshake for himself but given that he was lactose-intolerant, that wouldn't have been a good idea. Plus, he was too busy filming to even think about eating at the moment.

Cat cleared her throat and glared at her friends, making them become silent. She smiled brightly at the camera, showing off her pearly white teeth, and then put her milkshake down. "Did you get it?" she asked Robbie.

Grinning in satisfaction, he closed his camera. "Got it."

* * *

"Ow!" Cat watched the pedicurist file her toenails. "Watch where you're filing, lady! I pay good money for these pedicures and I'm not letting it go to waste over some incompetent employee."

"So what are your plans after school?"

"Um, Pilates, but just on Tuesdays. Other days, it's yoga."

"I meant after you graduate," Robbie explained. "Hopes, dreams…what's your life goal?"

"Prome Queen." Cat played with a piece of her curly red hair casually, letting it slide over her hot-pink manicured nails.

_She can't be serious._ "_After_ that."

"After? If I don't win Prome Queen, my life is officially o-v-e-r over!"

Her eyes widened in horror, then moved to focused on the pedicurist once again. "Oh, you missed a spot."

* * *

After the girls' outing was done and Cat had shooed him away, Robbie went home to edit the footage. Before doing so though, he turned on his camera and put it on his desk, facing him. If a documentary was to have any meaning, the filmmaker's perspective must be taken into account.

He watched the footage over again, and then turned his attention to the camera. "I have no words." He shook his head slightly. "None."

* * *

_Wow. Cat and her friends seem reeeeally ditzy—and popularity-obsessed, for that matter. For those of you asking me to make Cat ditzier, I just wanted to remind you that this is an AU, so the characters are slightly out of character. I usually make Cat pretty clueless in my stories, but this story is different. She's ditzy in the sense that nothing else matters to her except for popularity. In fact, she has some secrets that will be revealed later in the story. And if I made Robbie's reactions too subtle, I'll just flat-out tell you now that he's astounded by how shallow they are. But as he keeps filming, will his view of Cat change? Much more to come; I'll try to update soon!_


End file.
